Views from the Choir Loft

“Tu Es Petrus” (Rec. 2017 Symposium)

Jeff Ostrowski · February 25, 2018 ·

HIS MORNING, I stumbled upon a frightening disclosure by a popular Catholic composer who shall remain nameless. He admitted in a public statement that his sacred music compositions were attempts to copy John Denver. He also confessed that he knew nothing about music theory and “just wanted to play my guitar at church.” Surely something like this will demoralize us, right? No, it won’t—let us remember that serious Catholics will always desire authentic, holy, dignified music. No matter how many people imitate John Denver on the guitar in our churches, legitimate composers like Palestrina and Victoria will always be cherished by serious people. Period. ¹

When we discover people replacing the traditional Catholic music with poor imitations of John Denver, we must find the courage to say: “Not in my church.”

Let me demonstrate such love still exists:

The following beautiful piece by Lorenzo Perosi (d. 1956) was sung by participants of the 2017 Symposium, conducted by Dr. Horst Buchholz.

Sign up for Sacred Music Symposium 2018.

Don’t miss your opportunity to deepen your knowledge of authentic Roman Catholic music!

Come meet friendly Catholics who desire to worship Almighty God with dignified music!

NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1 For more on this, read about “the worm that dieth not” here and here.

About Jeff Ostrowski

A theorist, organist, and conductor, Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004), and did graduate work in Musicology. He serves as choirmaster for the new FSSP parish in Los Angeles, where he resides with his wife and children.

A quote from Fr. Valentine

Speaking of “nihil solliciti estis,” Fr. Valentine recently said: “I’ll bet that most people, including myself, have suffered more from things that never happened than from things that actually did happen.” Wise words!

—Jeff Ostrowski

Circle is complete

This is interesting! We have made it all the way around the liturgical year for Vespers organ accompaniments—which means all we have to do now is fill in the “holes,” such as Candlemas.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Fr. Valentine is very sick

I beg you to pray for Fr. Valentine Young, OFM, who I am told is dying (or may possibly have died already). He’s one of the most faithful & generous priests I know. There would be no CCWatershed without Fr. Valentine.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Discussion on Facebook

Giovanni Doni is known for having changed the name of note “Ut,” renaming it “Do.” He convinced his contemporaries to make the change by arguing that 1) “Do” is easier to pronounce than “Ut,” and 2) “Do” is an abbreviation for “Dominus,” the Latin word for the Lord, Who is the tonic and root of the world. There is much academic speculation that Giovanni Doni also wanted to imprint himself into musical canon in perpetuity because “Do” is also ulteriorly an abbreviation for his family name.

— Giovanni Battista Doni died in 1647AD